## Facts

- Kathy Maness, a parent of a minor child, was charged under section 5.1 of the Wrongs to Children Act for “permitting the sexual abuse of a child.”
- The charge alleged Maness knowingly allowed or permitted an act of criminal sexual abuse or assault upon her child and failed to take “reasonable steps” to prevent its commission or future occurrences.
- The circuit court held section 5.1 facially unconstitutional on due process grounds and dismissed the charge.
- The State appealed directly to the Illinois Supreme Court because the circuit court invalidated a statute on its face.

## Issues

1. Whether section 5.1 of the Wrongs to Children Act, criminalizing a parent’s failure to take “reasonable steps” to prevent child sexual abuse, is unconstitutionally vague under due process.

## Decision

- The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of the charge.
- The court held section 5.1 facially unconstitutional as void for vagueness.
- The court found the statute failed to give fair notice of what conduct was prohibited and failed to provide enforceable standards limiting official discretion.

## Legal Principles

- A criminal statute is void for vagueness if it fails to give a person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to understand what conduct is prohibited.
- A criminal statute must provide explicit standards for enforcement to prevent arbitrary and discriminatory application.
- Statutes imposing criminal liability for omissions must define, with sufficient clarity, (a) when the duty to act arises and (b) what affirmative conduct is required to avoid criminal liability.
- Undefined standards such as “reasonable steps,” without meaningful statutory guidance, risk leaving criminality to ad hoc judgments by police, prosecutors, and juries.
- Courts may construe statutes, but they may not supply missing substantive elements or rewrite vague statutory duties to save them from constitutional invalidity.

## Conclusion

The Illinois Supreme Court invalidated section 5.1 of the Wrongs to Children Act as unconstitutionally vague because it did not clearly define when a parent “knowingly” permits abuse, what “reasonable steps” must be taken, or how to apply the statute without arbitrary enforcement, and it affirmed dismissal of the prosecution.


People v. Maness, 191 Ill. 2d 478, 732 N.E.2d 545 (Ill. 2000)